The Washoe County public libraries are harming and engaged in committing a travesty against our children. No one, let alone children, should be ambushed and unwillingly subjected to obscene and pornographic material. When it comes to library books, we expect there to be a minimum standard set of values for our public library system that is conducive to educating our citizenry without harming the vulnerable among us in the process. The Downtown Reno Library tells another story.

Located on South Center St., the Downtown Reno Library was built in 1965, around the height of the Cold War. American architect Hewitt C. Wells designed what can only be described as a breathtaking work of art, gaining it a historical status designation. This historic building, also known as the Washoe County Library, boasts an atrium with a crosswalk that oversees the plants, shrubs, and trees below it on the bottom floor of the library, with bookshelves overlooking them from the floors above. The front of the public library is showcased with massive windows at street level that allow plenty of natural light to enter, enticing any passerby to enter and experience its magnificence. Fun fact: this is one of the few places in Reno that has a fallout shelter. What led this work of art to be perverted into a travesty against our children?

Modern technology has given rise to modern problems that were unforeseeable in the 1960s. The advent of the personal computer is one of them, which was not invented until the 1970s. This was followed by the Internet being invented in the 1980s, which became available to the public in the 1990s. Much of the time, technology evolves and advances so quickly that ethical and social considerations lag behind. It is the year 2025, the future is now, and it is time to talk about the place where innocence is being destroyed.

Peering into the Downtown Reno Library from the sidewalk, you can see the thriving vegetation below, complemented by the numerous computer desks with desktop computers. It is not uncommon to find people watching pornography on these public computers. Despite library staff and elected officials having been made aware of the problem with the atrium’s inherent design in combination with the computers’ location, continued inaction guarantees that children passing by or walking across the crosswalk are exposed to adult content and sexualized. To add insult to injury, Child Services is located directly across the street. This is beyond unacceptable, especially considering that the computers can easily be moved onto one of the top floors, out of the view of children. If Hewitt C. Wells were alive today, he would be absolutely mortified and disgusted with how this building’s unique design is being exploited to prey upon children.

Every week, countless people enter this public library, making their way across the crosswalk overlooking the computers below. If a child, by chance, manages to avoid exposure from below, they will be met with a different trap in the children’s section of the public library. There are children’s books that exist in this section containing obscene and sexually explicit material. This content is so graphic that if you were to read passages from the children’s book verbatim at a public meeting, legal counsel will intervene, resulting in you being promptly silenced to prevent exposing county employees to sexually explicit material. While this may sound absurd, this exact same scenario occurred when Victoria Myer was silenced on June 20, 2023, while reading passages from the book Lawn Boy (Author: Jonathan Evison) at a Washoe County Board of Commissioners meeting. This sexually explicit book was found and still can be found in the children’s section of the Washoe County public libraries, including public schools.

While there is sound reasoning for not wanting county employees to be unwillingly exposed to sexually explicit material, where is the same motivation and reasoning for not wanting county children to be unwillingly exposed to sexually explicit material? If an adult is not able to read graphic passages from a children’s book at a public meeting, then why is that book found in the children’s section of the library rather than the adult section of the library?

There must be a minimum standard set of values for our public library system that is conducive to educating our citizenry without harming children in the process. The inability to read a children’s book at a public meeting serves as an excellent litmus test for whether or not a book should be relocated to the adult section. If the Washoe County District Attorney’s office is the arbiter for what is considered to be sexually explicit material at public meetings, then perhaps it should be granted the responsibility of screening the children’s books located in the children’s section of our public library system.

The books we read as children sculpt our worldview, affecting our perception of reality. It stands to reason that the most critical stage in development for us is our childhood and that childhood trauma can cause a cascading effect that significantly impacts our emotional development. Some behaviors associated with damaged or stunted emotional development are an inability to handle stress or disappointment, poor impulse control, lack of empathy, poor self-esteem, chronic depression, and an inability to regulate emotions. Trauma makes an individual confused and more pliable to manipulation.

I do not believe this issue is unique to Washoe County, let alone the State of Nevada. As good citizens, it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to create a better future for our community so that we can flourish and reach our full potential. It is reasonable to mitigate the social subversion that seeks to gaslight us into creating an environment conducive to traumatizing and preying upon our children. Let us start with the Downtown Reno Library and stop its desecration.

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